Strawberry
by Alminac
Summary: Nodoka travels across Asia trying to escape the ineventable destiny of her unborn child as a shrouded figure fallows in determination. Read on to find out what happens.
1. Prologue

Ranma ½ - Ichigo(Strawberry)

Prologue – Hikari(Light)

Rating: Teen

Standard Disclaimers Apply.

--

The wind blew fiercely, interrupting the rains flight down to the earth below. Within the Bayankala Mountain Range, that is located in the Qinghai Province of China, a valley of freshwater springs was disturbed in its slumber. The intruder was a young woman around her twenties scrambling up a small cliff desperately. Her stomach was swollen with a soon to be born child.

She had been running from something and still felt its presence within range.

"Nodoka!" Bellowed a rasped rugged voice of a man who had tumbled out of the darkness, his eyes mad. "The child is both of ours! I will take it on the training trip!"

"I won't allow it!" The women, Nodoka, cried out, tears of desperation now streaming from her eyes. "You can't take our baby, Genma!"

Genma, deafened by his determination, continued to scramble after her. He had been taken on the same trip by his father. It was a family tradition and he'll be damned if any women would stand in his way.

Nodoka carried on up desperately. She had roamed all of Asia in the past few months to protect her baby after Genma declared he would take the baby on a ten year training trip at the age of six. She had to get away.

Nodoka soon reached the top of the small cliff and looked bellow as the bellowing wind snatched at her clothing and pinched her skin. She was peering into a valley of sorrow, of springs, of the Springs of Sorrow, Jusenkyo. She gasped as she was tugged roughly backwards as Genma finally reached her. He grinned widely.

"You can't stop fifty years of tradition women and you will certainly not stop me from taking this child on that trip!" He cried out, determinedly.

Nodoka's eyes widened.

"NO!" She cried and tore out of his grasped and toppled over the ledge.

Nodoka plummeted to the earth below, her soaking wet clothes flapping in the high wind. She began to see her destination coming closer and closer. She closed shut her eyes as she plummeted into one of the springs.

Genma looked below him as his wife fell into the darkness bellow, realization hitting him like a brick wall.

"NO! My heir! What have I've done?" Genma asked to no one in particular.

He slowly trudged into the darkness of the mountains, making himself lost in his confused sorrow.

Her skin stung as she hit the cold water. Then a strange sensation of warmth enveloped her as she began to surface. She gasped as she reached the surface and broke for the ledge of the spring climbing up onto it. She gasped for air as she lie face up at the sky, eyes closed. The clouds, seemingly unsatisfied, poured on, and the wind, hateful, snapped at her skin and cloths. She gasped. A contraction.

The baby was coming and at the wrong moment. She gasped again. She prepared herself for the baby.

Several hours later she held a child with hair an unusual shade of red. She had remembered when she was young having a somewhat similar shade of red for hair color, it had ran through her family genes. The child cried into the night as Nodoka panted wearily. She smiled warmly at her child as she panted.

"You have quite the wrong timing, don't you my little strawberry? What's your name?" She asked the baby girl.[1

The clouds began to give way to the sun as it raised, lights streaming from the clouds. Nodoka looked on in wonderment for a few moments before looking down at the girl.

"Hikari." She dubbed the girl and began to giggle.

--

Author's Note

Well I hope you loved my introductory to my new and first fanfiction. I can't wait to get this one on the road. I know it's somewhat short, but I'm hoping future chapters won't be the same length. Remember, it's only the prologue. Cheers.

Alminac

[1 – Remember when Nodoka fell into the spring? Uh huh. Let's see what's gonna' happen in the next chapter.


	2. Turning Point

Alminac presents,

_Strawberry_

A Ranma ½ fan fiction.

Standard Disclaimers Apply.

Rated Teen

* * *

Chapter One

_Kawarime_

_(Turning Point)_

* * *

_Authors Note: I don't want to implant the answer to this question__ (From one of the reviewers.)__ in the fan fiction so I will just write it down here. Nodoka had been to the police, but if my memory serves correct, Genma has quite the ability to evade the law. Nodoka also did not go to here parents because she would be putting them in danger as well. A may revise the prologue in the near future so I may remove this message__, or revise it, __and as well as __fix__ spelling mistakes I have missed__. Well, __enjoy._

* * *

A silent shadow moved across the calm village. Sentries patrolled the streets, carefully making there way along the alley ways and dark streets. The shadow made its way towards a small hut at the far end of the village, its chimney belching smoke out. The shadow reached it, reaching the window to peer into the hut.

Genma was delighted with what he had found, his wife, Nodoka, and the child of there's, snuggled into a bed together. He grinned largely. He could not contain his joy. He had been very fortunate to have seen Nodoka enter this small Amazonian village (1) in her search for shelter. He had believed she had perished when she fell of the cliff back in Jusenkyo. It had had taken him five long years to find child and wife again after he had saw her disappear in a crowd in an Amazonian village near Jusenkyo.

He climbed into the hut silently, making his way towards the bed. A young black haired boy laid silently, his thumb in his mouth, sleeping. Genma grinned larger, he had had a boy! Genma slowly removed the boy from his mother's arms. The five year old boy began to open his eyes. Genma clamped a hand down on is mouth as the boy struggled, wide eyed, and afraid. Genma turned, wincing as the boy kicked him in the shin, and escaped out the window. The boy broke his mouth free and screamed out for help.

Sentries began to run towards him, but he was not fazed, much, for he had evaded thing like this, namely the police. Genma grabbed hold of the boy, as Nodoka burst out of the hut, and ran towards a small stack of crate lined up against the wall of a building somewhat larger then Nodoka's hut.

"Genma, please, don't do this!" Nodoka cried after him.

"He is going on the training and that is final!" Genma cried back before leaping up the crates and onto the building.

He left Nodoka helpless as he ran across the roof of the building making his way to the wall of the second story. He looked down a sentries began to fallow up the crates, trapped. A sentry reached him quickly and the boy thrashed at in his arm. The sentry quickly reached him and proceeded to attack with a spear. Genma jumped upwards to avoid it and then balanced on it, vaulting off of it and onto the second story roof. A metal line ran down towards another building across from the one Genma was on and he had to think fast. The sentries were already giving one another a boost to get upon the roof and Genma ran towards the edge with the metal line, tore his bandanna off and leaped the roof positioning his bandanna on the line.

Genma speedily made his way down to the other building, his bandanna beginning to wear out and the boy screaming all the way and pounding at him. He positioned his feet in front of himself as he began to meet his destination. He pounded against the wall with his feet as he grunted and slammed the nearest window open, running down the stairs and out the door. A crowd had formed outside already and he blended in making his way to the back of it. He turned and saw the sentry lanterns raised above the heads of the crowd. He finally breaks free of the crowd, but a new problem arrives. Not all the sentries were looking for them because they couldn't hear from the back of the village.

Genma positioned himself, the boy had already given up and was somewhat limp in his arm, panting. A sentry looked at him and said something in Chinese to the other then turned to him, positioning his spear towards Genma. Genma tensed up as the sentry ran towards him spear drawn back. When the sentry reached him he shot his weapon forwarded, as Genma once again leaped over the spear and onto it, vaulting off of it and drop kicked the sentry in the face. The sentry fell flat on his back as Genma made a run for the surrounding shrubbery.

The second sentry attacked, not as inexperienced as the first sentry, and thrust the spear forward. Genma leaped upwards, but no luck there, the sentry lifted the spear upward diagonally, hard, and knocked Genma onto the ground. He released the boy on ground impact and the boy went rolling. The boy winced as he got up, but Genma had gotten up before him and retrieved him. The boy, once again began to thrash as Genma charged at the second sentry. The sentry shot his spear out as Genma slid under it and under the sentry, who had a second to look down before Genma upper cut him with his one free arm, which was somewhat of a sloppy upper cut, but effective enough to raise the sentry and inch from the ground and onto the floor. Genma recovered fast and ran into the forests cover, his adrenaline spiked higher then he had ever before.

Nodoka was moved back into the hut, a sentry guarding the door from the outside. She sobbed silently, missing Hikari already. Genma was going to put her through rough training that she didn't believe Hikari wouldn't be able to endure. She was such a gentle girl. (2)

--

_"Hikari__-__chan__, don't you want to meet some of the girls of this village?" Nodoka asked a small red headed girl who turned to her from were she was sitting, drawing with an old brush and ink bottle._

_"No…" She replied._

_"Well, why not?" Nodoka asked._

_"I don't know Chinese, __Momma__" Hikari replied._

_"You can still meet them Hikari, you know that." Nodoka replied._

_Hikari did not reply, but her brow creased as she tried to think of an excuse. Nodoka laughed lovingly and walked over to Hikari, hugging her from behind._

_"You know you don't have to if you don't want to, Hikari." Nodoka told her._

_Hikari smiled, "I know."_

--

Genma panted in loud gulps, the boy's hands tied up with some cloth he had grabbed when he had made his escape through the house he had gone through. He notices that the boy had been crying and was still crying.

"Can it boy." Genma said sharply.

The boy continued to cry. Genma marches up to him.

"Why are you crying?" Genma asks roughly.

"It hurts…" He said through gritted teeth and tears.

Genma observes the boys body and sees that he has scrapes on his arms and his shorts and shirt were somewhat dirty.

"Well, suck it up boy, you're a man, now take it like one." Genma roughly ordered.

"No I'm no-!" He cried before he was smacked in the face by Genma.

Hikari began to cry even more. Mom had never hit her before, except when she had broken her favorite brooch on accident and even then she had told her she was sorry.

"Listen boy-"Genma began.

"I'm not a boy!" He cried again, in tears.

"Listen!" He growled dangerously. "I'm your father and _you_are going to be heading with _me _on a training trip. What type of training trip? A martial arts training trip."

"Daddy?" Hikari asked confused and a little dazed from the slap.

"Just call me dad. None of that cutesy crap." He ordered Hikari. "What's your name?"

"Hikari…" He replied, taken aback from Genma's use of the word crap.

"Tch, just like Nodoka to give you a girly name, your name will be…hm." Genma pondered.

"That's because I'm a-"Hikari started.

"Ranma." Genma decided.

"I'm a girl!" She cried.

"Kami-sama, what has Nodoka done to you, brain washed you?" Genma asked in wonderment.

"Can I have some cold water, please?" Hikari asked.

Genma removes a canteen from his back pack and tips it to "Ranma's" mouth, but "Ranma" leaned forward and it dripped all over his head. His hair immediately turned red and 'her' features grew more feminine. Genma's mouth gaped open as he grabbed hold off the waistline of Hikari's shorts and checked inside. Hikari struggled openly and kicked him in his face, blushing madly.

"What are you doing!?" Hikari cried out in blushing.

Genma just sat there dumbly, staring at her.

"But you were just a boy then and now you're a girl!" Genma cried out suddenly.

"Momma tells me that I have a special gift. But-but I'm a girl!" Hikari cried in defense.

"No, no. You're a boy from now on, you understand?" Genma told her.

"You…You can't make me!" Hikari cried out at him. "You can't! I don't even know you and how do I know if you're my daddy?!"

"Isn't your last name Saotome? I'm Genma Saotome and you will do as you are told to, boy!" Genma retorted.

Hikari looked at him surprised.

"So you are my daddy…" Hikari replied. "But…uh…I-I still don't know you!"

She was finding it increasingly hard to find an excuse.

"Boy, don't start with me and don't try to correct me. You're a _boy_ now." Genma told her with authority. "You will do as you are told, understood?"

"Yes-yes dadd-"Hikari started.

"DAD. D-A-D. DAD." He told her.

"Dad…" She repeated.

She was afraid of her father and she couldn't do anything about it. She wanted her mom terribly much. She looked down.

"What are you doing?" He asked with authority.

"Nothing." She replied, her voice cracking.

"Look at me." He commanded.

"N-no." She replied.

Genma pulled her face upwards to get a better look at her face. She was crying again.

"What did I tell you?" Genma asked roughly.

"Suck it u-up?" She asked shakily.

Genma just stared her down as she soon stopped crying. He untied her once he was sure she wouldn't run away. It was getting dark. He began to set up a sleeping bag from his pack. He then proceeded to enter it. Hikari stared at him. Genma motioned for him to join him and she smiled a little before entering it. She snuggled up against him, feeling the cold of the forest closing in on them. Genma at least gave her some pity and allowed her to do so. Genma waited to her the light breathing Hikari would soon make, signaling her sleeping. That didn't take long and he was off to bed as well.

* * *

_Author's Note: Hope this was long enough to occupy your attention guys. I don't know if it will take me this long a time to write a chapter and I don't know if they will be at this length. I kind of feel I have let myself down with the length of this one so I will try to lengthen it. Maybe. (Lazy.) __I manage to right this from about 1:00 AM to about 7:00 AM. Wow, I need to sleep. __Well, hope you liked it._

_Alminac_

* * *

(1) – A sister tribe of Shapoo's village no doubt.

(2) – Originally, Rumiko Takahashi had not intended Ranma to be arrogant and so forth. He was supposed to be mellow. I don't even remember were I've read this so don't even ask were I had. I think it was in one of her interviews or something...


End file.
